Guidelines for management of acute bacterial rhinosinusitis: impact on Quebec physicians' prescriptions for antibiotics.

Abstract

To determine the impact of widely distributed guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of acute bacterial rhinosinusitis (ABRS) on physician prescribing patterns. The overall numbers of prescriptions were compared between Quebec and the rest of Canada (excluding Quebec) using IMS Health Canada Canadian Disease and Therapeutic Index and CompuScript data on the antibiotics use for ABRS for the 3-month period immediately following the distribution of the guidelines and the corresponding period the previous year. In comparison to the corresponding period during the previous year, antibiotic prescriptions for ABRS decreased 5.5% overall in Quebec compared with a 30.1% increase recorded in Canada excluding Quebec. While the reduction in antibiotics use noted may be multifactorial, it nevertheless suggests that it may be able to affect physician prescribing habits. Knowledge of the effectiveness of this method of distribution of guidelines could be used to plan more effective means of distribution of future guidelines.